The federal courts are full of judges who could retire but won’t. Little can be done about it.
www.nbcnews.com
Democrats were able to get President Joe Biden to step aside after a pressure campaign. But it’s much more difficult to force out a federal judge.

Democrats were able to get President Joe Biden to step aside after a pressure campaign. But it’s much more difficult to force out a federal judge.

At the age of 97, Judge Pauline Newman is the oldest full-time federal judge on the bench, but despite concerns about her ability to do the job, her colleagues are struggling to get rid of her.

…

When Democrats decided after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance that he was no longer fit to serve at the top of the ticket, a multifaceted pressure campaign was able to convince him to step aside.

But federal judges, as well as Supreme Court justices, have lifetime appointments and there is no easy process for easing them aside.

With people generally living longer, a lifetime appointment can now last many decades. The average age of a federal judge is 69, according to a recent study, and there is no clean way to force someone to step down.

  • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
    93·
    2 months ago

    35 is the minimum age to be President. 17 years from being an adult. So perhaps go 17 years below the median life expectancy, somewhere around 60?

    • Hellinabucket@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      Honestly that’s the problems. The median life expectancy is in the upper 70s. Once you factor in having all the benefits of the USA health care system but none of the cost, it gets even higher. The average for 1787 was in the upper 30s.

      The concept of a judge in their 90s was as outlandish as the concept of 35 million people living in California.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      That’s neatly symmetrical, but I don’t see an objective reason to have it be that way. Symmetry for symmetry’s sake isn’t by default better than anything else.

      • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
        25·
        2 months ago
        • Rhetorically, it helps make the case to any naysayers who’ve enabled an age-minimum but decry an age-maximum is wrong.
        • It effectively achieves the same result of tying the age-limit to retirement age without giving legislators the incentive to simply raise retirement age.
        • It will always float significantly below the median life-expectancy, which even if life-expectancy overall improves marginally by a couple of years (in itself a good thing of course), it still gives a buffer to the point where cognition begins to increasingly wane.

        Realistically I’d be fine with a final term beginning at 65 and ending at 69.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
      19·
      2 months ago

      Honestly, 35 is too young to be president. 40 to 60 is probably the sweet spot. Make the upper limit 65 or 70 (but start negotiating at 60).

      • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
        102·
        2 months ago

        You think? I don’t think 35 is too young. In fact, we don’t know because we’ve never tried. JFK was youngest at 43 and considered one of the best. Mid thirties is peak mental and physical health with enough time to foster education and experience in my view.

        For instance, if AOC became president after 35, she’d be fantastic independent of how slow the rest of the geriatrics around her hold her back.

        Ultimately if you can go to war, you should be able to run for office. Age maxes make more sense for several reasons than age minimums.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
          11·
          2 months ago

          JFK is not considered one of the best. He didn’t even have a full term, so there’s no way to know. People liked him because he was young and handsome and died that way.

          He started the Vietnam War. His only real test was the Cuban Missile Crisis. He did adopt Keynesianism economic policies (over more classical policies) and proposed the bill that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Those are all important, but he honestly wasn’t in office long enough to do much.

          And besides, like you said he was 43, not 35. AOC would not be able to do anything because she doesn’t have the relationships yet. Good presidents don’t come from the House of Representatives. They come from the Senate (JFK, Obama), Governors (FDR), or Vice Presidents (Harris).

          • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
            63·
            2 months ago

            https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall

            Meanwhile JFK’s lowest approval-rating was 56%, which was the highest floor since being recorded.

            By all accounts, he is definitely considered one of the best. Perhaps not to you, but objectively, yes… One of the best, most popular Presidents in history.

            43 shows the trend; similarly with Obama. When we trend toward lower ages, they tend to be extremely popular and historically revered Presidents. Besides, we ultimately cannot say it doesn’t work until we actually try it.

            Who said she doesn’t have “relationships”? What Relationships, exactly? Biden had plenty of relationships and we had to give him the boot. Senate versus House, it makes no difference on the fundamental character of the individual. It’s weird to think you suddenly utilized JFK as a positive example and then Harris who has yet to prove herself (while simultaneously saying we can’t use JFK… because he didn’t finish a term and yet you’re using Harris who hasn’t had a term to begin with…?)